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gas exports
Breaking the Chains: How Oil Addiction Empowers Putin's Terror
We are pushing the planet towards mass species extinction, irreversible biodiversity loss, and socio-economic collapse—a fact that Western elites have tried to bypass or ignore for decades. This war must end. So must our addiction to oil and gas.
Jul 13, 2024
There is no more vivid and undeniable proof that Russia is a terrorist state than what we witnessed last week: one of the most prestigious pediatric medical facilities in Ukraine and Europe, Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, was turned into rubble by a deliberate and targetedmissile attack on July 8.
While Ukrainians confront the brutality of this act of terror with sorrow and grim determination, we call for solidarity and action to address the root of the problem: the world’s addiction to oil, which finances Putin’s regime and his terror campaigns. This addiction also fuels the escalating trade of fossil fuels, driving the global warming and climate disruption that has killed dozens this week alone in the USA. We are pushing the planet towards mass species extinction, irreversible biodiversity loss, and socio-economic collapse—a fact that Western elites have tried to bypass or ignore for decades.
With the Kremlin's blood oil profits amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars, Putin is attempting to build a zombie USSR by funnelling revenues from these exports into his war economy and strengthening totalitarian state control.
Putin’s impunity is fueled by oil profits
Encouraged by impunity and fueled by ongoing flows of Western cash despite sanctions, Putin continues to escalate his terror campaign against Europe and his war against the people of Ukraine. However, his empire can be reduced to rubble with one decisive action: if the West finally heeds the call of its scientists and activists to end its dependency on dirty energy.
Despite sanctions, Russia is selling increasing amounts of oil. Every day, Russia receives over $300 million from crude oil exports alone and around $700 million from all fossil fuels combined. Russia’s federal budget, which has a record allocation to the military this year, relies on these revenues for half of its income.
If the West makes a strategic move to end its dependency on dirty energy, as urged by its scientists and citizen activists for decades, Putin will lose his strongest weapon
Despite sanctions Russia is selling increasingly more oil. Every single day Russia receives more than $300 million from crude oil exports alone and around $700 million from all fossil fuels. Russia’s federal budget, which shows record allocation to the military this year, relies on those streams for half of its income.
In a single day, Russia fired 38 missiles at Ukraine. The X-101 missile, that hit Okhmatdit Child Hospital in the center of Kyiv, cost around $13 million each. The missile attack on the hospital’s dialysis department, left at least 4 dead andmore than 50 injured, including doctors and children. The hospital now lies in ruins. As a result of Russia's latest wave of massive missile strikes on July 8, at least 37 people were killed and 170 were wounded, affecting Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, and the Donetsk region.
The total cost of the children's hospital attack was estimated by Forbes at $200-250 million, roughly the equivalent of what Russia makes in one day from its crude oil exports. Putin is building a violent and expansionist Russia by funneling blood-oil revenues into his war economy and strengthening totalitarian state control, while destabilizing all democracies he can.
The Missed Turning Point of 2022
In spring 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing global energy crisis triggered by it,the International Energy Agency (IEA) proposed specific actions to governments to reduce oil demand significantly. Recommendations were made to switch to clean energy, which is now cheaper on average than fossil fuels, helps solve the climate crisis, and will save trillions of dollars in preventing climate-caused extreme weather catastrophes.
However, the USA and G7 governments did almost nothing to reduce oil demand, and in fact, continue heavily subsidising fossil fuels. Meanwhile, Big Oil capitalized on the turmoil to reap record profits, while also redoubling lobbying efforts, taking legal action against activists, and continuing disinformation campaigns in the media. Some important turning points were missed, and we are now in an even more desperate position than in 2022.
We must state clearly that the American and G7 countries' refusal to follow the IEA’s recommendations on reducing oil demand, combined with their failure to enforce sanctions against Russian oil, is contributing to the deliberate mass murder of civilians and children in Ukraine.
More than two years into the war, Europe and the UK remain among the top contributors to funding the Russian war machine due to incomplete sanctions, lack of enforcement, and lack of political will. The USA has given much support, but has only used limited sanctions, while American companies like Halliburton and SLB have, in fact, sent equipment to Russia to help keep Putin's bloody oil pumping.
Today, Russian blood oil proliferates to new markets, and the shadow tanker fleet endangers the world’s oceans and seas with looming threats of major spills, that can lead to environmental disasters across Europe's coastal regions.
America, still acting as a leader of the free democratic world, must acknowledge that our planet is speeding down a highway to hell. The response to the terrorist attack on Okhmadit Children's Hospital marks a symbolic and crucial turning point: Will we let petro-dictator Putin get away with his crimes, condemning our children and future generations to the doom of new wars and the abyss of runaway climate change? Or will we stand up and fight for a better world, free from fossil fuel addiction?
Putin’s Authoritarian Quests Can Be Stopped
If the West makes a strategic move to end its dependency on dirty energy, as urged by its scientists and citizen activists for decades, Putin will lose his strongest weapon, and his authoritarian and brutal projects can be reduced to rubble.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, the world saw a remarkable reduction in global CO2 emissions, contributing positively to global climate. This precedent illustrates that dismantling a fossil-fuel-dependent economy can lead to substantial environmental benefits. Phasing out Russian fossil fuels from the global energy mix is not only a geopolitical necessity to curb Putin’s war machine but also a critical step towards achieving energy security and the decarbonization needed to limit global warming.
The US and all other G7 governments must take decisive action to implement structural policies that reduce oil demand and replace Russian oil imports (which are ongoing through refining loopholes) with domestic clean energy alternatives. This includes enforcing stringent sanctions, closing loopholes in existing measures, and investing in renewable energy infrastructure. Embracing electric vehicles, improving public transportation, and incentivizing energy efficiency are essential steps toward breaking free from the grip of fossil fuel addiction.
Russia and Big Oil must be defeated
The current situation demands a united and resolute response from the U.S. and the free world. We cannot afford to repeat past mistakes, where short-term economic interests overshadowed the need for structural shifts to clean energy. The ongoing war in Ukraine and the escalating global climate crisis are intertwined, and addressing one requires addressing the other.
The attack on Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital is a stark reminder of the human cost of inaction. As long as we fund Putin’s war machine through our reliance on Russian oil, we are complicit in the atrocities against innocent civilians and children. It is time to stand up for a world free from the stranglehold of Big Oil and its devastating impacts on our environment and future.
Leaders of the free world must acknowledge that the path to a sustainable and secure future lies in ending our dependence on fossil fuels. By learning from the collapse of the Soviet Union, we can understand the transformative power of dismantling a fossil fuel-driven economy. The need for bold, structural changes in energy policy is urgent. Together, we can turn the tide against the axis of modern political evil and pave the way for a cleaner, safer, and more equitable world for future generations.
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My Arrest at a NYC Insurance Protest—Why I Traveled from Texas to Fight Climate Injustice
Before being put in handcuffs, I knew there was no other place on Earth that I’d rather be than in that lobby and that I would proudly give up a few hours of freedom if it meant contributing to bending the long arc of history toward justice.
Jul 10, 2024
Earlier this month, I was arrested alongside four fellow Gulf South organizers because we chose to engage in a non-violent direct action inside Chubb’s towering building in New York City. I was not planning on breaking the law that day, but I’m glad I did and I want to explain why I’d do it again.
There are eight existing methane export terminals in the U.S., the second largest in the country is owned and operated by Cheniere near my hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas. Additionally, there are seven terminals under construction and 17 more terminals in the proposal phase in the U.S. Gulf Coast. Behind each of them is an insurance company. The pollution from the existing projects has already led to severe health issues and even deaths all while worsening climate change and extreme weather. The scorching heatwave that beat down on us during the protest was a stark reminder of that.
Insurers like Chubb have an integral role in securing a livable future. Everything oil and gas companies do needs insurance. Without insurance new projects would be all but impossible to build. We’ve repeatedly invited Chubb, AIG, and other insurers to our communities to show them the harm these projects are causing. We’ve shown them the documents—the explosions, shutdowns, and emission flarings—and have been met with silence, patronizing promises, or feet dragging.
Unified, determined, and honestly pissed off, over 200 of us marched down 6th Avenue to Chubb’s office. There I linked arms with fellow community members, two of whom were also from Corpus Christi and occupied the lobby. Originally, I was going to leave the group once the NYPD started to warn that they would begin arrests if we didn’t disperse. But as I sat there, I thought about the community that I love back home. I thought about the many heartbreaking conversations I’ve had with community members who are suffering the consequences of living so close to dozens of different poisonous facilities and having no direct avenue to holding the industry or those who insure it accountable.
I knew that this was my opportunity to use my body to demand justice on behalf of those who couldn’t be there with us in person. I was really scared, but I heard the chants outside coming from hundreds of my fellow Gulf South residents and I felt my good friends squeeze my hand tighter, letting me know that I wasn’t alone. I knew there was no other place on Earth that I’d rather be than in that lobby and that I would proudly give up a few hours of freedom if it meant contributing to bending the long arc of history toward justice.
Frontline activists, including the author (second from right) locking arms inside the Chubb headquarters during the direct action on June 26, 2024. (Photo Credit: Toben Dilworth/Rainforest Action Network)
As the arresting officer placed my hands behind my back and tightly zip-tied my hands together, I thought about the cruel irony inherent in arresting people who are working to protect our communities while those enabling the poisoning of our air and water are allowed to continue business as usual in their offices above us. It’s an apt encapsulation of the environmental and economic injustice we experience every day.
We traveled over 1,500 miles to New York to make sure these insurance executives understood the real-world consequences of their decisions. Our fight isn’t just about numbers; it’s about our lives, our homes, and our future. We won't stop disturbing their peace until they stop disturbing ours. Chubb, we’ll be back unless you stop insuring the destruction of our communities.
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The Fight to End LNG Expansion Could Be the Biggest Climate Battle of Our Lives
It reminds me a lot of Keystone XL saga, but with perhaps even more at stake.
Sep 25, 2023
The great privilege of being a journalist is that you get to ask questions, and people generally answer them, so you find stuff out. And sometimes that stuff is shocking.
I’ve spent the last few weeks working on a story for the New Yorker about the build-out of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals. With some help from a remarkable editor and an unshakable fact-checker, it came out a few days ago, and at the risk of being repetitive I wanted to share some of the reporting with you, because it seems to me to point in the direction of what might be the next—and perhaps the ultimate—big battle with the fossil fuel industry. It reminds me a lot of the Keystone XL saga, but with perhaps even more at stake.
"If this buildout continues, and if you counted the emissions from this gas against America’s totals, it would mean that American greenhouse gas emissions would not have budged since 2005."
To put it simply, with the invention of fracking, America—and Canada, and Australia—ended up with huge supplies of fossil gas. It’s not really needed—we could, more cheaply and much more cleanly, power the world with sun, wind, and batteries. But if that happened, the people who own these reserves would have to forego the hundreds of billions of dollars they could get for selling that gas. That is unacceptable to them; they would far rather break the planet.
So they’re in an all-out sprint to get it to market as fast as they can, mostly by exporting it around the world. In the U.S., there are already seven giant LNG export terminals, and there are plans for at least twenty more, mostly along the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana and Texas, which are close by the giant gas fields of the Permian Basin.
If this buildout continues, and if you counted the emissions from this gas against America’s totals, it would mean that American greenhouse gas emissions would not have budged since 2005. Under the arcane rules of global carbon accounting, exported hydrocarbons don’t count against our total—they’re the problem of the country that eventually burns them (in this case mostly in Asia). But the atmosphere doesn’t care; once burned, the carbon quickly disperses around the globe, heating the entire planet.
Just a single proposed terminal that I talk about in the New Yorker piece—the so-called CP2 LNG plant proposed for Cameron Parish, Louisiana—would over its lifetime be associated with twenty times the greenhouse gas emissions of the huge Willow oil complex that Biden controversially approved earlier this year.
The industry insists that selling gas overseas helps slow climate change, because it could replace coal. But scientists in recent years have shown that leaking methane makes fracked gas at least as bad for the climate as coal—and in any event scientists and diplomats have in recent years embraced the idea of net zero instead of slow incremental transition from one fuel to the next to the next. We’re simply out of time to use natural gas as a “bridge” to a cleaner future; we have to make the jump to renewable energy (which, ironically, is what kept the Texas power grid running during this summer’s heat). The International Energy Agency said in 2021 that we had to stop building new fossil fuel infrastructure right now; the best example of what they were talking about are the giant plants proposed along the Gulf of Mexico.
The good news is that the administration could put the kibosh on these expansion plans. Before they can get a license sell the gas to most of the world, the companies need a certificate from the Department of Energy that such sales would be in the public interest. After a northern hemisphere summer like the one we’ve just experienced, that should be a an easy call. (In the southern hemisphere, meanwhile, Brazil is slated to break its all-time high temperature record—in the waning days of winter.)
"The industry insists that selling gas overseas helps slow climate change, because it could replace coal. But scientists in recent years have shown that leaking methane makes fracked gas at least as bad for the climate as coal."
The less-good news is that the administration probably doesn’t especially want to do this. The gas industry was very chummy with the Obama-Biden administration (which even set up a special office in the State Department to promote fracking in other countries), and it continues to be a force in this White House. There are important staffers who view supplying natural gas as a way for America to achieve strategic dominance around the world, and the Ukraine crisis offered them a pretext. But the U.S. has enough infrastructure now to meet Europe’s demand—the White House and the EU congratulated themselves this summer on their success in meeting last winter’s energy challenge, and pledged to deliver as much again this year. As our friend Svitlana Romanko keeps pointing out, defending Ukraine is not an excuse for setting up plants with 40-year-lifetimes that will devastate the climate.
And the hard news, of course, is that challenging Biden during an election year that will pit him against a fascist (and climate-denier) is tricky at best. I’ll return to that theme in a few days because it’s important to try and get it right, but suffice it to say we need to do two things. One is beat Donald Trump, and another is stanch the flow of carbon into the atmosphere. Perhaps we can do both.
For today, let me just say: I come away from this reporting convinced that if the LNG build-out continues—here and in Canada and Australia—its sheer size will overwhelm our efforts to rein in global warming. But I’m also convinced it’s the last big gasp of this industry, and that if we can somehow stop it, then the switch to clean and renewable energy will come far more rapidly around the world. A lot is on the line.
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